The Closing Night Gala of the 12th annual Tallgrass Film Festival features the acclaimed feature BEFORE I DISAPPEAR, with Special Guest Editor Andrew Napier. The film is preceeded by the short film GRANDMA'S NOT A TOASTER (d. Andrew Napier, USA, 2013, 10m.) Purchase tickets here.

BEFORE I DISAPPEAR, written and direted by Shawn Christensen, stars Christensen, Fatima Ptacek, Ron Perlman and Emmy Rossum and won the Audience Award at the 2014 South by Southwest Film Festival. Based on the 2013 Academy Award® winning short film CURFEW, at the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his eleven-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours.

The Closing Night Gala takes place on Sunday, October 19 at 7:00 pm at the Orpheum Theatre and is sponsored by Steve Anderson. The movie andd Q&A is followed by the Closing Night Party at the Block One Parking Garage, with open bar, food from Bob & Luigi's and live music from DJs Ghouled and Deathblack Flowers.

Tickets are $25 and include movie and after party. Tickets are available online beginning September 27 and in person October 13. A VIP TALLPass gains admittance to all Galas, after-parties and screenings.

Napier will also present the U.S. Festival Premiere of his film MAD AS HELL as part of the Thursday Night Spotlight sponsored by Wichita State University, at 7:30 pm at the Scottish Rite.

About Filmmaker Andrew Napier:

Andrew Napier was born and raised in Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison. In 2009, after working on Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” in Berlin, Germany, he moved to Los Angeles. Andrew was a producer of the 2013 Academy Award®-winning short film “Curfew,” and later edited its feature adaptation “Before I Disappear” (SXSW 2014 Audience Award Winner). His screenplay for “Dogtooth,” a remake of the Academy Award®-nominated Greek foreign film, is currently in development at Mandalay Pictures. Andrew directed the feature documentary “Mad As Hell” (Hot Docs 2014 Conscious Media Award Winner), which follows Cenk Uygur, who’s online news show “The Young Turks” has amassed over two billion views on YouTube. He also directed the narrative short “Grandma’s Not A Toaster” (Tribeca 2013) and the feature documentary “Mary and Bill” (Wisconsin Film Festival 2011 Best Documentary). Andrew produced and edited “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” (2014), a documentary about the band “of Montreal,” released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. Andrew co-produced the romantic comedy “Lust For Love” (2014), starring Fran Kranz and Dichen Lachman. He served as an executive producer for the dark comedies “The Lord of Catan” starring Amy Acker, and “Limbo” starring H. Jon Benjamin, as well as the documentaries “The Culture High” and “Bounce: How the Ball Taught the World to Play.”